Island Bay Marine Education Centre-Bait House Aquarium in Wellington

An amazing resource! Love their kaupapa. Is very small, but super cheap, and very entertaining for people of any age! Super knowledgeable and friendly volunteers/staff.

Nice little place they have down there by the water. Good place to go for a quick and fun outing. Interesting seeing the all the various types of marine life they have in one building.

The tanks had too many large fish in them and they didnt look well and the octopuses didnt have much room, could only go up and down. The water and tank conditions could be better too. The hands on open area was good the kids liked experiencing that. Good information offered and a good learning experience

Best fun! Enthusiastic kindly and knowledgeable guides and lots of different fish and other sea life. Much easier than going for a dive, at my age :-)

A wonderful, interactive experience. You get to put your hands into the water and touch all sorts of sea creatures. Star fish, hermet crab, sea anemones, sea cucumber and more. They also have all sorts of different fish to see, and some octupus! Very cool experience and fun thing to do with kids on a Sunday.

Informed friendly and passionate people greeted us and shared the goal of turning the tide of loss and decline in our seas and shores. We need this work to become a tidal wave if action. Loved seeing what should be...but very sad for the octopi whose intelligence shone through pleading to be released.

One of Wellington’s hidden little gems (which can be booked for kids birthday parties!). Victor is so incredibly knowledgeable and adept at engaging with people of all ages, its wonderful to get to known more about the local ocean life from a local marine biologist.

Fantastic place to look at some wonderful marine life. Cheap as chips and the touch pool is a brilliant way for kids and kids at heart to see things up close and personal.The octopus talk was brilliant and I definitely learned some things and walked away with a greater appreciation for our marine life!

The tanks where filled with life and wonder an amazing place to come visit for a little bit or for the whole day

Amazing stay and play the personal service is non other

Great place to go with kids and the family. The staff is so friendly and keen to explain and let the kids touch the animals. Well definitely go back again

Really cool place with very helpful and interested staff! Pretty sure they could answer any questions you have about the creatures.

The Island Bay Marine Education Centre, also known as "The Bait House", is an interactive marine experience based in Island Bay on Wellingtons south coast. As well as there being lots of different sea creatures on display (including a couple of octupuses, sea horses, crayfish, turtles, a grumpy blue cod to name a fewyou can also handle starfish, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, crabs and other sea life found un the touch pools. There is far more inside than you would expect from the outside and the volunteers whi wirk there are very friendly and helpful. It is really reasonably priced ($5 for adults, $2 per childand we were all entertained for ages. Really good fun and educational too. Definitely worth checking out with the family.

This place is an amazing place run by passionate amazing people who are doing incredible things to showcase our marine life and consvervation. This is a must see attraction in Wellington.

If you want to get up close and personal with some of the amazing sea creatures, then check this place. Located along the seashore of Island bay, Wellington. The staff were amazing and accommodating. Kids and Kids at heart will surely enjoy this place. If you are lucky, you might witness the Octopus feeding session. The entrance fee is cheaper than your coffee.

What a great experience.After 1 1/2hrs, we only left because we were getting cold from having our hands in the water.

This is such a lovely experience for kids and adults alike, the staff are welcoming and very knowledgeable. It is a small place but has heaps to see and the kids just loved the interactive tanks, holding the starfish and looking at the anemones. Would definitely recommend to anyone, thanks for a great time!

If you dont, you need to watch these guys on Facebook. Boris the Blue Cod is informative and sassy. He tells you all about what is on, who is where, and generally is a great fishy David Attenborough.The staff are very smart, able to answer any questions you may have. My son got to help feed the octopus. The touch pool is great!

Lovely setting on the waters edge along the Esplanade. Taputeranga Island is in the foreground. There is accessible car parking, with Sholand Park and public toilets across the road. Bathing and swimming areas. Beautiful scenery, beautiful area. Enjoy.. ❤️

Very interesting place to go. Can learn a lot about marine life here. Good for kids to. Some hands on is allowed. Dont be scared to ask lots of questions.

Awesome little place to take the kids. Its small and simple but has a great touch tank for the kids and helpful knowledgeable staff.

The small orange building houses many species local fish and marine life found around the Wellington coast. Helpful and friendly staff. At feeding times kids and adults if they want can be involved in feeding the fish. Umm you may get splashed ! There is a rock pool set up on a big table that kids can touch small starfish and interact with other small sea life found in the local Wellington rock pools. There is a small charge per person but we spent over an hour there. So feel it was worth it.

Look for the big white, standalone building on the beach with a large shark graphic on the wall, Island Bay Esplanade, and also the brown building closer to the sea, about 50 m away.If you are going by bus, take the Island Bay bus to the last stop, then walk to the Esplanade straight ahead and turn left. You cant miss this large, white building on the beach. Kids will enjoy this excursion to the Aquarium where you can get close up to some of NZs sea-fauna.

Absolutely worth visiting at least once. 5 stars if you have proper age kids (5-10y.o.). Small fee at entrance. Cool thing is open pool with all kind of sea creatures that you can touch.

Meet by Dr Victor at door, great introduction- humorous, attention grabbing and controlled flow into his nest of knowledge.Yes it dark almost dingy and small, but I suspect that benefits the exhibits; and its only $5 an adult,$2 a child and open Sunday 12-3pm think their amazing on that budget.Staff I think are volunteers, immensely knowledgable and captivating, storys and facts well told and presented whether your 4yo or 84.Go, dont miss out, cos its the and its great!

We didnt realize the Sunday venue is in an orange small building, and no one responded to the phone. So we wasted 20 min waiting at the staircase in front of the big white building. Then locals passed by and told us where the venue is - roughly about 50m away.The aquarium centre and staff members (volunteersare amazing. Our persistence paid off - absolutely worth the trip and waiting. Love the octopus 🐙. Definitely encourage visitors to go.

Best aquarium Ive ever been to. Amazing to see how engaged people of all ages are - large, amazing hands-on touch tank, watching seahorses chasing and eating live shrimp, seeing an octopus stroking her 10,000 eggs, a huuuuge blue cod... and thats just a start. Amazing how much wonder is in this aquarium! 2 hours of fascination easy. Kids love it!

Learnt a great deal and an awesome hands on experience, rock pools outside are great too

Great place to visit with kids. Not huge, but plenty to see in 30mins.

This gorgeous little place is a little known gem of Wellington. It is tiny, but the volunteers are so knowledgeable and wonderful at getting the kids involved and learning about what is living just below the surface of our coastlines. My 3 year old loved the touch tank so much, I get asked at least daily to go back! If you are on Facebook, be sure to check out their page as Boris the big bad blue cod writes wonderful posts! They are open on Sundays only so be sure to plan accordingly.

Would have been a 5 star if venue was big enough to accommodate the school holiday crowd.Although there were plenty of volunteers around, the place could use an expansion so it doesn’t feel so claustrophobic.Enough local and non local sea creatures to satisfy the young curious minds, Victor our volunteer guide was engaging and enthusiastic when welcoming us with a short story of why they are doing this there.The highlight had to be the open aquarium where kids can physically interact with sea cucumbers, star fishes, and the likes.Must do activity in windy Welly with primary - Intermediate kids.

Awesome place for families, great price, informative, energetic staff, primo displays,magic being able to pick up stuff and see sea life being fed. Tell all your friends, 5 kids, 2 adults, best $20 weve ever spent.

Great value - 5/ adult and 2/ child! Get to touch starfish, sea anemone and a couple of hermit crabs. Very informative as well. There are a few fish tanks that house turtles, seahorses and fishes.

These guys are doing amazing job educating us about marine life. Must go place whenever you are an adult or a kid. Friendly staff will tell you a lot of things we never even thought about in a humorous, but informative way. You can pet some sea creatures in the open aquariums. The place will give you an experience youll never forget! Highly recommend!

Such a great resource, it has so much potential. Clear to see the volunteers are passionate about marine life and do an amazing job at promoting it and educating people on the impact our actions have on the marine environment.

I highly recommend this Wellington gem! Not the largest venue, but very easy to spend a lot of time here admiring the wide range of marine life... and holding a few! Our 2 year old loved the octopus in particular and got real thrill seeing him being fed. Even Mum and Dad learned heaps and were impressed by the passionate and knowledgeable volunteers. Its in a lovely spot and a wonderful educational experience :)

A very small fish tank place. Great for stopping by, but dont make a long deliberate trip for this. Touching sea animals, fantastic for kids. Outside is the marine reserve - a great natural discovery area. Flip some rocks to see crabs, sea stars, sea worms etc.. all by the island beach. Together makes a day out in the sun.

What an amazing place! A labour of love from a special team who provide a fascinating environment filled with wonder for the young ones. My two young boys loved it and we had to drag them away!My favourite thing was being able to touch the anemones!Thanks guys for the awesome experience and learning opportunity.

Fantastic place to get up close and touch some sea creatures. The kids love it especially when they saw the octopus have paddle crab for lunch. Outside of course is the beach and rockery so the kids continue their investigations there.The staff are very knowledge and very friendly. Always willing to answer your questions about what you are seeing.

Spend a whole morning there.. Awesome and interesting. Learn heap, had a special octopus feeding show as well. Love it

Amazing place to learn about the marine life and local reserve. The volunteers area amazing, knowledgeable and very helpful. Make sure you attend the octopus feeding and check out the touch tanks. Great for children.

Great volunteers that are very helpful and knowledgeable. Promote great awareness and educate both young and old. Highly recommend if visiting Wellington. Guest get to feed the fishes during feeding time.

Little museum but very interesting. Its possible touch some selfish .

Great little place. Cheap to get into, quite a bit to see and very hands on for the kids in the touch tank.

This wonderful kid friendly educational place is open every Sunday and open on request for school groups to visit. The touchy feely tank was the winner with my grandkids. Knowledgeable helpful friendly volunteers are on hand to widen the visitors experience.

The staff really make this place come alive. So knowledgable and entertaining for the kids. The touching tank is great for the kids to get a hands on experience with starfish & anemones. Its super cheap to get in as well.

Fantastic learning experience, especially for kids. Hands on too rather than look but dont touch. Plenty staff to answer all your questions.

Hands on experience for kids second to none for "value in money - fun education experience" if such award existed. Gold coin koha entrance fee, very friendly volunteers and knowledgeable staff with real interest in the marine environment and reserve on Wellingtons unforgiving south coast... Very easy place to lose a few hours. Absolutely worth visiting, even better than the idea I had for a restaurant in this shell of a building that was once the hub of South Coast, North Island, fishing...

Great little aquarium with heaps of fish and other creatures that are really easy to see. Our 7 month old loved it and so did we. The octopus was very impressive. Awesome interactive pools that you can touch lots of different sea stars and starfish amongst other things.

Small facility, looks like its predominantly run by volunteers; there seemed to be almost as many staff as visitors :}Loved the open pools where you can touch some of the marine critters, e.g. starfish and sea cucumbers.